Charging Bull

    Charging Bull, which is sometimes referred to as the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling Green Bull, is a 3,200-kilogram (7,100 lb) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that stands in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street in Manhattan. Standing 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) long,the oversize sculpture depicts a bull, the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, leaning back on its haunches and with its head lowered as if ready to charge.  

     The sculpture is both a popular tourist destination which draws thousands of people a day, as well as "one of the most iconic images of New York" and a "Wall Street icon" symbolizing "Wall Street" and the Financial District.

       Di Modica spent some $360,000 to create, cast, and install the sculpture following the 1987 stock market crash as a symbol of the "strength and power of the American people". The sculpture was the artist's idea, not the city's. In an act of "guerrilla art",he trucked it to Lower Manhattan and on December 15, 1989, installed it beneath a 60-foot Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a Christmas gift to the people of New York. That day, crowds came to look at the bull, with hundreds stopping to admire and analyze the gift as Di Modica handed out copies of a flier about his artwork.

       The police seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot. The ensuing public outcry led the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to install it two blocks south of the Exchange in the plaza at Bowling Green with a ceremony on December 21,

1989. It faces up Broadway.

Woolworth Building

      The Woolworth Building, at 233 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, designed by architect  Cass Gilbert and completed in 1913, is an early US skyscraper. The original site for the building was purchased by F. W. Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J. Hogan by April 15, 1910, from the Trenor Luther Park Estate and other owners for $1.65 million.  By January 18, 1911, Woolworth and Hogan had acquired the final site for the project,  totaling $4.5 million. More than a century after the start of its construction, 

it remains, at 241.4 meters (792 ft), one of the one-hundred tallest buildings in the  United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1966,and a New York City landmark since 1983.

Bryant Park

      Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre (39,000 m²) privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan.Although technically the main building of the New York Public Library is located within the park, effectively it forms the park's functional eastern boundary, making Sixth Avenue the park's primary entrance. Although part of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Bryant Park is  managed by a private not-for-profit corporation, the Bryant Park Corporation. 

      Bryant Park is built entirely over an underground structure which houses the New York Public Library's archives. In the 1980s, the park was closed to the public and excavated.The new library facilities were built below ground level and the park was restored above it.

Williamsburg Bridge

     The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It once carried New York State Route 27A and was planned to carry Interstate 78, though these plans were aborted by the cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway and Bushwick Expressway.

      This is one of four toll-free crossings between Manhattan and Brooklyn or Queens.

George Washington Bridge

       The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey, in the United States. Interstate 95 (I-95) and U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) cross the river via the bridge. 

       The bridge, an integral conduit within the New York metropolitan area, has an upper level carrying four lanes in each direction and a lower level with three lanes in each direction, for a total of 14 lanes of travel. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph (72 km/h), though congestion often slows traffic, especially during the morning and evening rush hours. The bridge's upper level carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic. 

        The George Washington Bridge carries approximately 102 million vehicles per year, making it the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.

                                                Designer:         Othmar Ammann, Cass Gilbert
                                                Total length      4,760 ft (1,450 m)
                                                Width              119 ft (36 m)
                                                Height              604 ft (184 m)

                                           

NoHo

    NoHo, for North of Houston Street is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by Mercer Street to the west and the Bowery to the east, from East Ninth Street to East Houston Street. NoHo is primarily made up of loft apartments, which in turn makes it one of the most expensive and desirable neighborhoods in Manhattan. Its small size and central location also contributes to a high demand, again keeping prices high.

  

Astoria

    Astoria is a middle class and commercial neighborhood with a population of 154,000 in the northwestern corner of the New York City borough of Queens. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside,and Woodside (bordering at 50th Street).

     The area now known as Astoria was originally called Hallett's Cove, after its first landowner William Hallett, who settled there in 1659 with his wife, Elizabeth Fones. Beginning in the early 19th century, affluent New Yorkers constructed large residences around 12th and 14th streets, an area that later became known as Astoria Village (now Old Astoria). Hallett's Cove, founded in 1839 by fur merchant Stephen A. Halsey, was a noted recreational destination and resort for Manhattan's wealthy.

      The area was renamed after John Jacob Astor, then the wealthiest man in America with a net worth of over $40 million, in order to persuade him to invest just $2,000 in the neighborhood. He only invested $500, but the name stayed nonetheless, as a bitter battle over naming the village finally was won by Astor's supporters and friends.

     Attractions in Astoria include the Kaufman Astoria Studios' Museum of the Moving Image, Isamu Noguchi Museum, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Astoria Park, along the East River, is Astoria's largest park and also contains the largest of New York City's public pools which was also the former site of the 1936 and 1964 U.S.Olympic trials.